'I'm a teacher. A comment from a male student made me quit on the spot.'

Teachers create our futures. They train young minds and sculpt a new generation, not just in academics but also in empathy, communication and people skills. 

Unfortunately, many of them have absolutely had enough of doing this indispensable yet arduous job on a pittance salary and without proper support from schools. Add to that having little to no avenues to discipline bad behaviour, and you have the perfect storm to make someone quit.

One such example is this public school teacher on the east coast of Brisbane who detailed what happened to her one day in the classroom. 

It was this experience, along with a chronic lack of funding and resources that prompted her to resign in the same TikTok video. 

"Student called me a fat b*tch today, and they will be losing no playtime tomorrow," she said in the video, walking around the streets of Ormiston, Brisbane. 

"[The child] said it to a whole group of students and then threatened all the other kids that they would beat them up, choke them and push them if they told me," she explained. "When I asked [school leadership] what the consequence would be for this child, they told me 'nothing.'"

A male student in her class was never disciplined for his slur. Image: Getty

The teacher said that the child was not held accountable at all for their slur, not losing playtime, laptop time, free time or anything at all. 

She added that the school she was at seemed reluctant for their staff to take sick leave. 

She says they would say "of course, if you feel sick have a sick day," but there was an underlying message of "we kind of don't want you to have sick days because we literally have no budget left [for casual teachers]."

In the occurrence of a sick day, the teacher claims the classes were split up between the other teachers who would then have up to 40 students in their class, wearing out the remaining staff. 

She added that the school was chronically under-resourced, with the school putting limits on paper and printing worksheets and not even providing whiteboard markers. 

"I asked the school if I could get some books for my students to read. The answer was 'no, we don't have a budget'. We don't have enough laptops, even though we're meant to teach technology. There's not enough money in the budget," she said. 

Adding, "I haven't been given a single thing to help me with my class this year. I haven't even been given a pen."

School teachers are at their wits end. Image: Getty

This sad tale culminated in the teacher, who has since gone into colour analysis and goes by the online name 'Colour Babe', to quit her role. 

"[I've been] thinking for a long time about quitting and whether or not I should make that decision … and I definitely do need to quit," she said through tears.

At the end of the video she tells the class that a new teacher will take over the position in a few weeks, and their reaction is emotional. She even tells one student that there's no need to cry. 

And there goes another, once dedicated teacher, who has become fed up and burnt out from the system. 

The NSW Teaching Federation released a statement in 2023 that there are a record number of teachers leaving the profession after COVID. 

"We now have almost one in five permanent teachers quitting in their first five years of their career (19 per cent in 2022, compared to 11.6 per cent in 2021 and 8.2% in 2018)," they state. "That is by far the highest rate recorded. A record 4.2 per cent quit within their first year of teaching in 2022.

"We are in serious danger of losing the future of the profession."

It's a worrying trend for the future of this country, when good teachers feel that despite their passion for the role, they cannot continue. 

Watch the full TikTok here:

@colour_babe

In this video I’m explaining why teachers are quitting schools within Australia. There are many issues within schools in Australia such as lack of respect for teachers increasing workloads lack of resources just to name a few. Teaches are constantly leaving the profession because they’re feeling burnt out not respected And constantly drained. It’s really important that we look after our teachers and provide them with things that they need in order to feel safe supported and valued in their workplace. They also need the resources in order to do their job effectively. It’s time that people start speaking out about what’s going on in schools.

♬ original sound - Colour Babe

Featured image: TikTok

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